UPDATE 4-Nintendo pins hopes on holiday-ready "Wii U"

June 05, 2012|Reuters

* Wii U comes with custom "Super Mario" title

* Video content beefed up

* System can work with two GamePad controllers

By Liana B. Baker and Malathi Nayak

LOS ANGELES, June 5 (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltdwill launch a console with a dedicated "Super Mario" game titlefor the first time in 16 years as the struggling Japanesecompany hopes its new Wii U will score the rave reviews thathelped make its predecessor the world's biggest gaming hit.

Nintendo hopes the Wii will appeal to families as well astraditional gamers, global president Satoru Iwata said in aninterview in Japanese on the sidelines of the E3 entertainmentexpo in Los Angeles.

Nintendo, which was knocked off its perch at the pinnacle ofgaming industry hardware by Microsoft Corp's Xbox inrecent years, formally unveiled a white console on Tuesday,saying it will support two "GamePad" controllers designed tolook and function like tablets.

The Wii U, which will carry video content from Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc's YouTubeand Hulu, will hit stores in time for the holidays. The Japanesegaming company, however, left many in the audience at itspresentation on Tuesday wanting more information, especially onthe cost, given that Nintendo is playing catch-up with Microsoftand Sony Corp's heavily discounted hardware.

"The device has to win support from within the family. So wehave to show the benefits of the Wii U device from differentangles in order to reach the mother, the father and thechildren," Iwata said.

The new console may face a challenge in appealing to coregamers who like to play shooter games as well as those that bowlin their living rooms and swing virtual golf clubs.

"I am still not convinced about whether they can retain theaudience who bought the Wii, as well as hardcore gamers," saidJames Brightman, U.S. editor for the trade publication, GamesIndustry International.

The first console from Nintendo in six years will come witha social-gaming network dubbed "Miiverse". But it will need avast library of software titles, including the star of itsstable, "Super Mario", to have any hope of matching the Wii'ssuccess.

Nintendo is currently fending off upstart challengers likecasual game makers and apps for mobile devices like Apple Inc's iPad, which are making inroads into the $78 billionvideogame market.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's famed video game designer andproducer, said making deeper games is important "in this erawhen consumers are said to be moving to lighter games."

To protect its position, Nintendo is coming out with a new"Super Mario" game featuring its namesake plumber traversingdifferent adventure scenarios. It spearheaded Tuesday'spresentation of a batch of games intended for the Wii U,including "Nintendo Land".

Analysts said Nintendo, which traces its origins back morethan a century to the streets of Kyoto, badly needs a hit.

In 2011, it launched the 3DS handheld device todisappointing sales in part because it initially lacked newversions of its top games.

The original Wii revolutionized the industry in 2006 byintroducing motion-controlled gaming and outsold rivals like theMicrosoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 3. But sales have beenslowing, triggering the company's first annual operating lossand a major stock slide.

Nintendo shares fell 2.9 percent to 9,000 yen early onWednesday in Tokyo compared to the 0.5 percent gain on thebenchmark Nikkei. The company's shares have lost nearly15 percent since January this year.

While investor reaction has so far been lukewarm on the WiiU, the videogame industry is embracing the first console to hitthe market in years. Ubisoft said this week it isdeveloping eight games for the Wii U's launch.

Executives at Ubisoft said the company was lured by thechance to have players use two screens in one game.

"The Wii U is really interesting in terms of asymmetricalgame play, with one player doing something and one other playerdoing something at the same time," Xavier Poix, studio directorof Ubisoft France, said in an interview.

But after seeing Nintendo's presentation on Tuesday, M2Research analyst Billy Pidgeon said Nintendo will need to workhard to explain why a second screen is necessary.

"It is kind of a complicated sell. You're asking people toplay games in different ways," he said.

Nintendo is forecasting sales of 10.5 million Wii U and Wiiconsoles next year.

The last time Nintendo published a new "Super Mario" titlewhen a home console was introduced was in 1996, with theNintendo 64.

The new Wii U tablet controller will also have a headphonejack, a camera in the front allowing for video chat, and amicrophone and motion gaming capabilities and trigger buttons onthe back of the tablet for shooter games.

But Nintendo focused less on the hardware on Tuesday andmore on the games it will bring to the Wii U. The company didnot give a release date for the latest Mario game, butexecutives showed off different levels featuring its signaturefixtures: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and gumbas.

The company also showed off games made by other companiesbuilt for the Wii U, such as Warner Brother's "Batman ArkhamCity: Armored Edition."